Crab Apple Jelly. Have you made it.

Good Afternoon wonderful crafter's.
Today I am taking me turn at learning how to make crab apple jelly. That's right. I have never made it before so this country wife is doing her first attempt. I searched online looking for a recipe but like all there is so many that does a person really know. Nope so I'm kinda following but winging it at the same time.

All common things were remove stems and bottoms and any blemishes. Wash apples off.  So got that all done and put them into stock pot to cook.

Yup Apples are cooking for 20-30 minutes. Hope this is all good to go.






While I wait for the apples to cook any guesses as to what else this country wife is doing. Ugh yup laundry. I don't think I will ever get caught up. LOL

Now back to the apples. After apples are cooked its time to strain them to make the jelly.
Taking me a while to strain the juice out but I did read that you can strain them overnight which is good and what I have done. Now because I don't have any cloth to strain the juice through I'm using coffee filters. Yup its taking me a while. I heated up the juice some to help strain it. Hopefully it doesn't hurt it any.

Now to measure how much juice I have to figure about how much sugar I need.  Now most of the recipes I've come across use a lot of sugar to me. No thanks. So here is what I did.

1 C Crab Apple Juice
5 tsp Sugar

Stir to dissolve sugar
Cook for about 40 minutes on a roiling boil. Don't forget to skim the froth off the top as it cooks
To know if its been cooked long enough cool off some spoons and test by putting some of the jelly on the spoon and see if it sets. If not cook a bit longer.

 
 I do hope mine turned out right.
I put some canning jars into some water and boiled so that they were nice and hot. Put jelly in and put the lids on. Oh this is my first try and its a little nerve wracking.

I started out with 11 cups of juice and wound up with 4 250 ml canning jars.  That was a lot of vapour lost so not sure if I did something wrong to lose that much but when you think about it you are going to lose a lot at a boil for 40+ minutes.

Well I have finished up my first experience at canning anything. Now just hope it turns out.  Let it cool and we shall see. 😅💖

Well that is all for today. I will post an update in the comments section once I open a jar up and see how it turns out.  

I have 2 wonderful cheerleaders to help me out.
Yes they are quite the cheer leaders 💖

Thank you everyone and Happy Crafting

Reney                                             

Trelenberg Designs

Country Wife

Hoping I can help my parents. Pattern Sale on Ravelry

Sitting here wishing that I could help my parents out right now. My parents are awesome people and I wish that I could help. But with me being a stay a home mom I can't come up with the money to help mom and dad right now which is really bothering me.  My parents are both hard workers and have helped me out in so many ways that I can never repay them. All I want is to be able to help them out some. Having to move and dad didn't get a chance to work this summer as he was hired on a logging company and the whole area around them is on fire.

Yes the picture of this fire isn't that far from my parents which scares me

I have started a gofundme in hopes or raising some money to help out but not sure what my chances are with even getting a dollar on there as there are so many causes on there.

Deciding on a New Blanket Pattern

Well I am currently working on a new pattern again. This on is going to take a bit of time as I am planning on making it in both crochet and knit. Same design but this way it wont matter which craft you are into you will be able to make this beautiful blanket.
Blanket will be called Country Cabin and we right now I have the design done but still need to make it. And to make it I need to get more yarn.
This is one I can't wait to share as in my mind it looks so beautiful. Now to get the yarn and make sure that it turns out the way it should before I actually post a pattern.
Now quick question. Favorite way to crochet a blanket
Corner to Corner or One end to the other. Might even do the pattern both ways.  And pattern will be tested before release.

Well now that I have it all planned I had better get going. House work today and hopefully soon I can make it to a store to start working on it. And then have to decide what size it will be when all done YIKES. wonder if I can do it where it can be any size. I should be able to, guess time will tell.

Well I hope everyone as a crafty day and cant wait to share more.
More helpful videos will be released soon as well.

Thank you for your support
Happy Crafting

Reney
Trelenberg Designs

Store more with the Seamless Hanging Organizer

Do you wish that you had more room to store a few things. Say in the bathroom or your travel trailer/camper. Do you love to crochet. Well, How about building yourself a Hanging Organizer.

 Give you a lot more storage and can hang on the bathroom/bedroom door or even hang in a closet.
Now to figure out what to store it it. Well the pockets are big enough to store your bathroom necessities such as shampoo and conditioner and other toiletries, or you could store your cleaning supplies like toilet bowl cleaner, window washer Mr. Clean and keep it hung up out or your little ones reach. There are lots of different ideas for what to put in the hanging organizer. And its completely up to you as to where you put it and what you use it for.
Like to make and know of family and friends that could use one. Yup build as many as you wish. And because you have taken the time to build it plus bought all the supply's needed and the pattern well you know what SELL them. That's right I have no problems to you selling the finished product as it is you that took so much time to make it. Please don't give or sell my pattern but any pattern that is bought from me you can make the product and sell as little or as many as you want. 💖

The pattern for this organizer is written so that it is built from the bottom up and you don't have to seam any part of it.  I hate seaming and if I wanted to be a seamstress I would but NOPE I work with yarn and hate seaming so my patterns if possible are built with no seaming. Yes I know I'm stressing the point but I can't help it as I know lots of people that don't like to do seams either so I know I'm not alone.

Now where can you find the pattern? Well you can find The Seamless Hanging Organizer on:
Ravelry, Etsy, and Craftsy.

Till Aug 18, 2017 You can get the pattern for 25% off no coupon required. Only on Ravelry

Learning to Knit A couple Cast on Methods

Have you ever thought about learning how to knit but you were always scared to. Well I hear where you are coming from. I tried knitting when I was little. My mom and both grandmothers tried to teach me. I was the unteachable. That is up till I was 30. Then I decided to give it a try again.

After learning how to crochet when I was 27 I decided it was time for me to try again.  Bought my self some needles and yarn and well now what. I found a wonderful site online called Craftsy and bought myself a couple classes. Needless to say I now have quite a few classes on there and still so much to learn. I go back and watch them different time and now I am helping my nephew learn as well.

After learning some on Craftsy I figured out why I couldn't seem to get it when I was younger. The cast on. I hated it cause I always had way to much yarn at the end of my first knit row. Grandma taught me how to cast on using the backwards e method. Not my favorite and one I shall never use again.  Now for casting on I use either the a crochet cast on, long tail cast on ( a couple different versions). I would love to help others learn how to knit so I am going to also add a couple of videos here to show you how I do these cast on's. I do hope you enjoy.

Here I will start of showing you how to do the crochet cast on. I use this on bigger projects when I get tired of trying to figure out how much tail I need for the long tail (use long tail on smaller projects).

I am not talking in these videos due to surrounding noise of 2 very energetic kids. (1 and 7)
Here is a video of my crochet cast on. Please feel free to let me know what you think.

Now for the long tail cast on. Here I did 2 different kinds. The first is your regular long tail. I do it without the slip knot in it. (My preference), and then after I put the stitch marker in I do a long tail cast on that is stretchier and works good for 1x1 rib. 

I do hope these video help you to start.  There are a lot more different ways to cast on but for me these are the ones I use. 

Have yourselves a wonderful day 

Happy Knitting

Reney

Trelenberg Designs

Sun Hats / Bun Hats

Did you notice the craze for the winter bun hats. I know I sure did. They seemed to be everywhere you looked. Everyone wanted one.  Well how about in the summer when lots of women wear sun hats. Yup that's right how about a sun hat that is perfect for your messy bun/pony tail.

Sizes ranging from toddler/small child up to an adult.

How cute is this little sun hat. A neat hole at the top for your bun/pony and if you don't want the hole just tighten the tie up and bam you no longer have the hole but you now just have a sun hat.


Would you like to crochet up your very own Messy Sun Hat. If you would you can find the pattern HERE for Ravelry Users, Not one for using Ravelry that's okay cause you can also find the pattern on ETSY and CRAFTSY.

Need a little extra help on the pattern. I have added pictures and video to my pattern to help everyone along.  Just starting out or been crocheting for years. I do believe anyone can make this hat.

I do so hope you enjoy your new hat. Doesn't take much yarn and doesn't take much time.
Happy Crocheting to all. Have a fabulous day.
Reney
Trelenberg Designs